page_title: Serbian Orthodox Church
section_title: Modern history
hierarchical_section_title: Serbian Orthodox Church / History / Modern history
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; Cathedral of Saint Sava, Belgrade, Serbia.Français&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; Temple de Saint-Sava, Belgrade (Serbie).Türkçe&#x3a;&#32; Sırbistan'ın başkenti Belgrad'da bulunan Aziz Sava Tapınağı. Teknik açıdan katedral olmaması ve özgün Sırpça isminde de tapınak olarak anılmasına rağmen, kiliseye gerek önemi gerekse büyüklüğü sebebiyle yabancı dillerde Aziz Sava Katedrali de denir.
context_page_description: The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches. It is the second-oldest Slavic Orthodox Church in the world.
  The Serbian Orthodox Church is composed of the majority of the population in Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is organized into metropolises and eparchies located primarily in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia. Other congregations are located in the Serb diaspora.
  The Serbian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, member of the Eastern Orthodox communion. The Serbian Patriarch serves as first among equals in his church; the current patriarch is Irinej. The Church achieved autocephalous status in 1219 under the leadership of St. Sava, becoming the independent Archbishopric of Žiča. Its status was elevated to that of a patriarchate in 1346 and was known afterward as the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć.
context_section_description: The church's close association with Serbian resistance to Ottoman rule led to Eastern Orthodoxy becoming inextricably linked with Serbian national identity and the new Serbian monarchy that emerged from 1815 onwards. The Serbian Orthodox Church in the Principality of Serbia gained its autonomy in 1831, and was organized as the Metropolitanate of Belgrade, remaining under the supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Principality of Serbia gained full political independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, and soon after that negotiations were initiated with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, resulting in canonical recognition of full ecclesiastical independence (autocephaly) for the Metropolitanate of Belgrade in 1879. At the same time, the Serbian Orthodox eparchies in Bosnia and Herzegovina remained under supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but gained internal autonomy. In the southern eparchies, that remained under the Ottoman rule, Serbian metropolitans were appointed by the end of the 19th century. Thus by the beginning of the 20th century several distinctive Serbian ecclesiastical provinces existed, including the Patriarchate of Karlovci in the Habsburg Monarchy, the Metropolitanate of Belgrade in the Kingdom of Serbia, and the Metropolitanate of Montenegro in the Principality of Montenegro.
  During the World War I (1914–1918), Serbian Orthodox Church suffered massive casualties. After the war all the Orthodox Serbs were united under one ecclesiastical authority, and two Serbian churches were united into the single Serbian Orthodox Church in 1920 with the election of Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije. It gained great political and social influence in the inter-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, during which time it successfully campaigned against the Yugoslav government's intentions of signing a concordat with the Holy See.
  The united Serbian Orthodox Church kept under its jurisdiction the Eparchy of Buda in Hungary. In 1921, the Serbian Orthodox Church created a new eparchy for the Czech lands, headed by bishop Gorazd Pavlik. At the same time, the Serbian Church among the diaspora was reorganized, and the eparchy (diocese) for the United States and Canada was created. In 1931 another diocese was created, called the Eparchy of Mukačevo and Prešov, for the Eastern Orthodox Christians in Slovakia and Carpathian Rusynia.
  During the Second World War the Serbian Orthodox Church suffered severely from persecutions by the occupying powers and the rabidly anti-Serbian Ustaše regime of Independent State of Croatia, which sought to create a "Croatian Orthodox Church" which Orthodox Serbs were forced to join. Many Serbs were killed, expelled or forced to convert to Catholicism during the Serbian Genocide; bishops and priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church were singled out for persecution, and many Orthodox churches were damaged or destroyed.
  After the war the Church was suppressed by the communist government of Josip Broz Tito, which viewed it with suspicion due to the Church's links with the exiled Serbian monarchy and the nationalist Chetnik movement. Along with other ecclesiastical institutions of all denominations, the Church was subject to strict controls by the Yugoslav state, which prohibited the teaching of religion in schools, confiscated Church property and discouraged religious activity among the population.
  In 1963, the Serbian Church among the diaspora was reorganized, and the eparchy for the United States and Canada was divided into three separate eparchies. At the same time, some internal divisions sparked in the Serbian diaspora, leading to the creation of the separate "Free Serbian Orthodox Church" under Bishop Dionisije. Division was healed in 1991, and Metropolitanate of New Gračanica was created, within the united Serbian Orthodox Church.
  The gradual demise of Yugoslav communism and the rise of rival nationalist movements during the 1980s also led to a marked religious revival throughout Yugoslavia, not least in Serbia. The Serbian Patriarch Pavle supp
caption: Cathedral of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox buildings in the world, being built continuously since the end of the 1980s on the site where the relics of Saint Sava were desecrated by the Ottomans
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